Microsoft Corporation $MSFT Position Lifted by ORG Partners LLC

ORG Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 34.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 22,387 shares of the software giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,721 shares during the quarter. Microsoft makes up approximately 2.1% of ORG Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. ORG Partners LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $11,532,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MSFT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 705,077,786 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $350,712,742,000 after acquiring an additional 13,691,572 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 1.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 299,196,519 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $148,823,341,000 after purchasing an additional 3,166,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 179,001,751 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $88,714,256,000 after buying an additional 3,532,054 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the second quarter valued at about $50,493,678,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 83,787,746 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $35,316,535,000 after purchasing an additional 11,600,470 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Microsoft Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of MSFT opened at $430.29 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $475.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $499.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.39. Microsoft Corporation has a 1 year low of $344.79 and a 1 year high of $555.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.07.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The software giant reported $4.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $81.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.28 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 39.04% and a return on equity of 32.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.23 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Microsoft Corporation will post 13.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.91 dividend. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.76%.

Microsoft News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Microsoft this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large commercial deals and partnerships underpin continued demand — Microsoft landed a major cloud customer agreement (Perplexity, reported as a $750M deal), which demonstrates Azure can win sizable AI workloads and supports future revenue. Perplexity signs $750 million AI cloud deal with Microsoft
• Positive Sentiment: Long-term AI opportunity remains large — analysts and commentators note that potential liquidity events (e.g., an OpenAI IPO) and continued hyperscaler AI demand could boost infrastructure spending that benefits Microsoft’s cloud and services over time. Could A $1 Trillion OpenAI IPO Save The Day For Nvidia, Microsoft?
• Positive Sentiment: Backlog/RPO growth signals demand — Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligations (backlog) jumped materially year-over-year, implying multi-year contracted revenue tied to AI workloads. Microsoft demand backlog doubles to $625 billion
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly results were solid but mixed — MSFT beat on revenue and EPS (Q2 results) yet the company issued guidance and commentary that implied a modest moderation in Azure growth vs. prior quarter; the market is parsing growth vs. the cost profile. Microsoft Q2 earnings beat on top and bottom lines
• Neutral Sentiment: Options and sentiment flows amplify moves — unusually high call-option buying and heavy volume have increased intraday volatility and may accentuate both selloffs and snapbacks. Stock Of The Day: Is This The Bottom For Microsoft?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor backlash to capex and margin risk — the core negative: investors punished MSFT because AI capex jumped (reported ~$37.5B in the quarter) while Azure growth showed signs of slowing, raising doubts about near-term returns. That drove a sharp selloff and a big market-cap contraction. Microsoft tumbled 10% in a day and isn’t recovering premarket. Here’s why
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts & guidance uncertainty — several firms trimmed price targets or flagged near-term Azure/margin risks, increasing downside pressure even as many maintain buy ratings longer term. These Analysts Slash Their Forecasts On Microsoft Following Q2 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/investor scrutiny follows the shock drop — law firms have opened investigations and class-action notices have surfaced, which can keep sentiment fragile near-term. Microsoft Corporation Investigated on Behalf of Investors

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MSFT has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $640.00 to $580.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Rothschild & Co Redburn decreased their price target on Microsoft from $500.00 to $450.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Mizuho cut their price objective on Microsoft from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Microsoft from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $590.00 target price on shares of Microsoft in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Microsoft currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $597.73.

Insider Activity at Microsoft

In related news, EVP Takeshi Numoto sold 2,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.72, for a total transaction of $1,364,352.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 55,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,703,959.04. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bradford L. Smith sold 38,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.64, for a total value of $19,967,640.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 461,597 shares in the company, valued at approximately $239,402,668.08. This trade represents a 7.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 54,100 shares of company stock worth $27,598,872. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft develops, licenses and supports a broad range of software products, services and devices for consumers, enterprises and governments worldwide. Its operations span personal computing, productivity software, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, developer tools and gaming.

Microsoft’s product portfolio includes the Windows operating system and the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity and collaboration tools (Office apps, Outlook, Teams).